And because of this specific issue, at least one potential customer, (me) who may or not be representative* of the main target audience, remains completely unconvinced that Asobo is at all capable of delivering on their promises. Let alone giving out any money to find out if this is true or not.
*Just a typical long timer, who started out with FlightSims back in FS4.0, (a 1990’s era 3.5" disk I still possess btw, 'cause, Classics…) and is eagerly willing to spend spousally-unjustifiable amounts (but then, I’m not married anymore) on FS related stuff…
For the time being, this old-timer is sticking to X-Plane and DCS; Both of which are openly acknowledged by their directly-communicative makers as forever Works In Progress™
(which is totally fine, unlike…)
< rant >
This whole Let’s Act Professional™ (and never EVER communicate as normal people do) attitude that Asobo displays, leaves just about zero room for lost customer confidence to ever grow back…
You had lost me over the chronic “Metar Bubbles” problem more than a year ago. For now, my confidence has NOT AT ALL improved with news of recent developments concerning this new release.
As far as it shows, to a keenly interested user who’s kept up with stuff; (even if just to find out if it’d ever be worth the hassle again) - There is naught to dissuade from the opinion that MSFS will likely never really make it beyond becoming another “Microsoft Flight”, or “KSP2” style debacle.
I’d so very much LOVE to be proven wrong on this…
…But nowadays, that’s mostly because a large chunk of the FS industry is still hanging on, and has yet to become convinced that their efforts would be better supported by a different platform. Namely, you know, one that has an X in it’s name somewhere…
If/when the bigger addon devs start to accept that things are really going as poorly as they seem, then well; There won’t be any reason to “hope” anymore, given how a full product replacement with then be available without most of the (not few) MSFS drawbacks.
I’ve already managed to make XP12 scenery look as good, and at times better, than MSFS generally does. (minus the photogrammetry, which really doesn’t add all THAT much, in the grand scheme of things)
The only big selling point Asobo’s “sim” still holds, is the large support of very big 3rd party names, like A2A, PMDG… uhm, HiFi (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) and such propping it up…
When they go, so do I.
Forever, that is. No more checking in periodically to see if by some miracle it “got gud” while I was away and might be worthy of renewed attention.
This is not about “I paid like 60 bucks or so, and now I’m teenagely self-entitled to the immediate satisfaction I paid for with all my saved up lunch money!” demands*. In fact, I have NOT paid yet. Mostly because of stuff repeatedly stated in this thread, and many like it.
*not to dismiss those, mind. I was a teen once myself, though gladly, I eventually got better
FlightSims aren’t “casual passtimes”, but first and foremost, Hobby-Level commitments one makes, often with far more than “just a little” enthusiasm. You can’t just treat it like some videogame or other…
Even if so. The “casual gamer” audience is but a fickle corporate myth; Not represented by most real individuals, but existing as a statistical average of some lowest-common-denominator gamer pseudo-type; Which can only be held onto by heavy spending on overt marketing and a masochistic willingness to continuously cater to (or perish by) the aforementioned demands.
For now, as a member of the the Old, Die-Hard, Flight Sims Forever crowd, I see nothing here to warrant any new interest. Only what looks like Infinite Problems™ as the main selling point…
< /rant >
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